WADA, PNKh
Few people hoped for a fair hearing of the case of the Russian athletes by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne, but its decision to drag and not allow our athletes to the Olympics in Rio still caused a state close to shock and a massive wave of indignation. The trial, in which the principle of collective responsibility was applied to Russian athletes, without painstakingly separating the right from the wrong, looked painfully ordered and inadequate.
Already after a briefing by officials from WADA (World Anti-Doping Association), who agreed that “Russian athletes took doping under the control of the FSB (and, since this is the case, there is no evidence, but you understand...), since the test tubes with samples were scratched from the inside” it became clear that the WADA management itself was secretly using something from the scratched test tubes, and that our athletes would be subjected to a full-blown nightmare, since it had been announced in advance that the final decision of the CAS would definitely be influenced by the findings of WADA. And CAS did not disappoint: out of 69 Russian track and field athletes who appealed, the personal applications of 68 athletes were rejected. Only the request of athlete Daria Klimishina was satisfied. And the most interesting detail of the case was the fact that Klimishina has been training in the USA for a long time and taking doping tests there.
Thus, training abroad and lack of communication with Russian doctors and anti-doping laboratories became the main criterion for issuing an athlete a ticket to the Rio Olympics. And not only in Rio. There is unprecedented discrimination when additional and very stringent requirements are imposed on Russian athletes, which prevent them from taking part in international sporting events.
To simplify the wording even more, international sports officials did everything to break up the Russian Olympic team: leave the country, do not compete under the national flag - and you will get to the Olympics. Otherwise, don't blame me. They will unleash all the dogs on you, get you dirty and turn you into outcasts. And I don’t care even if you are world sports stars, like Elena Isinbaeva or Sergey Shubenkov. There will be many other hunters in your place.
There is still hope for the IOC (International Olympic Committee), for which the Court of Arbitration for Sports is not a decree, but the proceedings initiated by international sports officials with Russian athletes on the eve of the opening of the Olympics will certainly have a negative impact on sports results even if our athletes are allowed to compete.
According to the lawyers of the Russian Olympic team, there is another encouraging circumstance. The International Athletics Federation (IAAF) has admitted that if the decision is made on July 21, all deadlines that were set by the IAAF for Olympic applications for Russian athletes will be shifted.
In general, we will keep our fingers crossed for our athletes.
The foreign media is actively harassing our Olympians. They are required to hand over all their awards for the Winter Olympics in Sochi and the Summer Olympics in London. The British press is especially furious. The German tabloid Bild even refused to mention the Russian team in the overall medal standings, declaring in advance the sporting achievements of our athletes invalid. And why? Because One Baba mentioned the FSB along with doping in her report.
The world seemed to have degenerated and rolled back more than 30 years, to the Olympics 80 and 84. The Olympics in Moscow were boycotted by the countries of the “Free World” in response to the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. The boycott was a mess back then, as many Western athletes refused to follow the politicians’ lead and came to perform privately, but with the permission of their national Olympic committees. A number of teams from those countries that supported the boycott of our Olympics marched with national flags at the opening. Nobody imposed the condition “give up your flag or turn the shafts” for foreign athletes to participate in the 80 Olympics. Today we are given such conditions.
The 84 Olympics in Los Angeles, through the efforts of President Reagan and his team, turned into a complete profanation of the Olympic movement. The American side officially refused security guarantees to athletes from the USSR and allied countries. The most common American joke in 1984 was “Kill the Russian!”, printed on T-shirts and other consumer goods.
Taking into account the descent into insanity of the American leadership and part of American society, our country refused to send its athletes to Los Angeles. This decision was supported by our then allies. From the entire socialist camp, China and Romania sent their national teams to the 84 Olympics (to the question of the evil USSR, which subjugated everyone to its will). Initially, our leadership had no intention of declaring a retaliatory boycott of the Americans.
Having learned that the favorite teams from the USSR and the GDR, who regularly collected 2/3 of the medal harvest, would not come to the Games in Los Angeles, one of the American sports officials ironically said in an interview: “Now even my grandmother can win an Olympic medal! "
Our outstanding athlete Elena Isinbaeva responded in the same spirit when addressing Western athletes: wouldn’t they be ashamed to receive free Olympic awards?
There is no talk of a boycott of the Rio Olympics, as Peskov, the head of the press service of the Russian President, officially stated. Discriminatory measures so far only affect our athletes.
As for the IAAF's demands that our athletes admitted to the Olympic Games compete under a neutral flag, they are in direct conflict with the principles of the Olympic Charter. According to the charter, athletes of national Olympic teams compete under the flag of their national Olympic committee. In our case, this is the state flag of the Russian Federation.
But it’s really painful for someone to itching for our athletes to refuse to compete under the Russian flag. They are offered to compete not only under the flag of the IOC, but even under the ensign of Ukraine.
It would seem like such a small thing. One “our” athlete, who became a WADA whistleblower in the doping scandal, has already decided to compete under the Olympic flag and is calling on other athletes to join her. They say, there is only one life, the sporting age is short-lived - we have to go!
But is it convenient to just accept such a tempting offer? Abstracting from the moral side of the issue, the proposal of “one athlete” gives off a bad odor. As if the sporting achievements of an individual Russian athlete are entirely the merit of the athlete himself.
It’s in the West, in the rich USA, that a talented kid first has to sweat on his own, not only in training. We need to find money for a coach, for sports equipment, for sports nutrition, for renting a gym (I’m already silent - a stadium), trips to competitions, sports medicine - all at our own expense. And only when everything comes together and the first achievements begin, recruiters - scouts - will appear and begin to offer scholarships at universities, sponsors and other goodies. They come to Big Sports as already established athletes, having withstood personal hardships and hardships on the way to their dreams.
We largely retain the Soviet approach to young sports talents. Sports sections, coaches, equipment, food stamps (the author of these lines knew one athlete who, in difficult times, managed to feed his family on these coupons), employment, trips. The participation of the state in the development of an athlete is still a decisive factor in our country. Without government participation, only sports for the rich would survive in Russia. Tennis, golf, or some curling, God forgive me.
So can our athletes suddenly feel like private individuals who have no obligations to the country?
I wouldn't want to be disappointed in people. To paraphrase the poet Nekrasov, “you may not be an athlete, but you must be a citizen.” So let WADA informant Stepanova run around under the IOC flag in splendid isolation and ring her thirty pieces of silver.
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